It boils down to which approach you take in your 4 year plan to build your program...
If we’re taking the UGA approach in which we’re trying to be an overpowering team that isn’t as reliant on schematic advantage, then you have to absolutely crush it in recruiting & to
@RightSaidFred point, top 3-5 classes is the only way we can become a perennial contender using that methodology.
Having top 10 classes can suffice when combined with good schematics; see Clemson, LSU, Oh ST etc..
But if we’re not following those models for building & going the Bama/UGA route, you can’t settle for anything less than multiple top 5 classes in that scenario, unfortunately.
It’s imperative to win Elite recruiting battles when you don’t have great coordinators, because otherwise you end up in the TAMU, ND, Texas, Penn ST etc category of always being teams that recruit well but never well enough to get over the hump. It’s definitely better than where we’ve been as program for the last 20+ years, but then you gotta ask, is that what we’re aiming for?